ly SUMATRA. 



231 



to the summit I found placed but a few yards from the cmter 

 edge. On reaching the brink the first look quite startled me. I 

 stood on tlie edge of a sheer precipice 600 or 700 feet in depth, 

 k>oking down into a gigantic unevenly- floored pit bounded 

 by peri>endicukr walls which till a short time previously 

 bad been a lake. The floor was of a deep bl no-black colour, 

 giviof^ vent at various points to jets of steam. From this 

 standpoint it seemed that there was no possible way of reachinjx 

 the cmter floor than by leaping over the preeipiee ; but, on 

 proceeding along its rim, I found a sjwt where the clifts Ijeeanio 

 considerably lower. This less elevated wall tunied out -to be 

 only a dividing dyke separating the western from another 

 much greater and more irregular eastern crater, into which I 

 would not venture to descen<l, as, on probing its floor, it 

 treacherously gave way under the weight of our feet. In the 

 ugly rents and chasms athwart it, and in the great unsightly 

 blocks of stone furiously piled up against each other in all 

 directions, giving issue l>etween them to stemn and fcetid 

 vapours, it was not inviting. To reach the western floor wo 

 descended a declivity of some 70"*, scrambling sometimes on 

 hands and feet sometimes sliding on our heels, not without an 

 eerie feeling, for, though all looked still and quiet, there was 

 a c^tntinuous and awesome sound, waxing and waning like an 

 angry sea breaking on a shingly shore. The whole surface 

 was covered with a layer of black sand and irregular fragments 

 of stouej many of them of great size and weight, chipped and 

 indented by the impact of others falling on them. The lake, 

 which a few years before filled it, had disappeared. The soil 

 was quite porous, and on the surface unpleasantly hot to 

 the hand, but further down candescent enough to scorch my 

 walking-stick thrust into it ; from the whole surface vapours 

 gently emanated, leaving variously coloured deposits. At one 

 spot several great cauldrons wore in fierce ebullition, emitting 

 steam, with a roar like some cyclopean engine blowing off power 

 which the walls resolved into the sound of a surf-beaten sliore ; 

 and besides, vapour, sand, water, and white and rich chrome 

 coloured mud:?, tiilged with aliun and sulphur. 



Three years had elapsed since its previous eruptiou had ceased 

 and six since it had commenced. Before that time it had been 

 quiescent siuce aljout 1833. The wlmlo country for twenty miles 



